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NEW YORK, June 3, 2014 (Thomson Reuters Accelus) – The U.S. Treasury Department’s anti-money laundering arm is quietly attempting to resolve a lawsuit challenging its use of a potent Patriot Act power against a Macau bank as well as the constitutionality of that authority, documents filed in federal court in Washington suggest.

The effort by Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) to avoid litigating the lawsuit brought by Banco Delta Asia (BDA) suggests the bureau is hoping to avoid a court battle that could weaken or perhaps even kill the extraterritorial power prized by U.S. authorities, Section 311 of the Patriot Act, former Treasury officials say.

There has been “an extended discussion between the parties through a course of several telephone calls and meetings over the past year” aimed at resolving the lawsuit by BDA outside of court, a document filed in District Court earlier this week states. The document seeks to bring the judge overseeing the case up to speed regarding what has occurred since February when the parties jointly requested the lawsuit be put on hold so they could attempt to resolve the matter.

It states that apart from the lawsuit, BDA made an administrative request that FinCEN withdraw its 2007 action that labeled BDA a “financial institution of primary money laundering concern” under Section 311 and thereby barred U.S. financial institutions from opening or maintaining correspondent accounts for the bank, severing it from the U.S. financial system.

According to the document filed in District Court, FinCEN responded to BDA’s administrative request by proposing “further action” on the bank’s part and that the parties have “tentative” plans to meet next month to discuss the matter.